Exodus - Resistance Begins

"No! We're not going!" Shinj grabbed Lain's shoulders. "I'm not going back to that, that life! And I'm not leaving you!" Lain bit her lip. She didn't want to leave him, who walked through Hell to save her, to show her that she wasn't alone, but she didn't know how to stop what was happening. Shinji was throwing things into their bagsindiscriminately. Finally she had to take his arms, lest he shake himself to pieces.

"Shinji..."

"Lain... we know what it's like for us back ho... back where we were. We know what will happen. I'VE SEEN WHAT I'M LIKE AFTER IT HAPPENS. I met him. Me. I don't want to be like him. I don't! And we won't remember any of this... it'll be like we never came here at all. I don't ever want to forget you."

She was crying, and so was he. They held each other, and she mumbled "okay" into his shirt.

Twenty minutes later, they were off the grounds of the campus and into the woods. The Primers were still set on auto - the voices became a little more mechanical, a little less believable. It would be some time before their absence was noticed. At which time the sirens would go up and the search would begin.